3rd Year, Class B — Bio-Engineering
Savannah College
Meteor City
I looked up, then turned and faced my classmates.
They were watching the gray wolf with expressions of shock, awe, surprise, and even fear. And who could blame them?
The gray wolf was both majestic and terrifying. Not to mention, it had come out of a portal-like thing similar to the ones that were producing monsters outside.
In fact, I was surprised that none of them had screamed in terror yet.
But then again, most people here came from well-established families and were taught to remain calm under pressure. And if they weren't, then simply being in the same class as those who were taught such things had probably taught them a thing or two.
Humans are quite adaptive creatures, after all.
I looked at my classmates.
"Alright. Change of plan. We will all go to the other classes, gather everybody, and then head to the large seminar room on this floor to hold a proper meeting."
I stopped and looked at the teacher.
She was also scared, but she was putting on a brave face to avoid causing panic among the students, which was admirable in its own right.
She had black hair like almost everyone else, except for Luna, whose hair was dark blue.
But her eyes were a unique shade of brown that seemed to shine with something.
She had a younger-looking face for someone her age, with an above-average appearance and a well-fitted body. Moderate breasts were visible beneath her tucked-in white shirt, while her black skirt was perfectly fitted to her waist. Her long legs made the skirt look even shorter, and long black stockings completed the outfit.
In fact, if you put her among normal people, she could probably pass for a model.
But the average of an elite wasn't the average of normal people.
Especially in my case.
I saw almost everyone as average-looking at best, and only gorgeous fairies could truly be called beautiful in my eyes.
I turned toward the teacher.
"Ma'am, we would need your help in convincing the other classes to cooperate."
I said it with an extremely serious expression, one I hadn't shown since this whole thing started.
Mostly because it hadn't even been thirty minutes since everything began.
The teacher looked me directly in the eyes.
"Why the change in plans?"
She knew she hadn't contributed much since everything started, whether it was planning our initial idea or calming the class.
But she also knew that I wasn't the type of person to change my mind without a credible reason.
I looked straight into her eyes for a few seconds before sighing.
"I just realized I was a bit too stupid."
I looked forward, no longer at the teacher, but at the entire class.
"I was thinking that even though all these unbelievable things are happening, we can still make sense of them because we've seen things like this in novels."
I paused.
"It would be easy. All we have to do is get stronger by killing those monsters. We have 'Levels,' so I guess we can level up."
I pursed my lips as I looked at my confused classmates.
I already knew their thoughts were probably similar to mine.
If this is like the novels, then shouldn't we be able to become stronger?
I sighed.
Then I slightly narrowed my eyes as a faint line of worry appeared between them.
"But... what made me think those monsters were anywhere near my level for me to even kill them in the first place?"
As soon as I said that, everyone finally understood what I was getting at.
And the terror that followed sent a mental shockwave through the entire class.
KABOOM!
Everyone froze.
Some became lost in thought.
Some trembled in fear.
Others simply remained shocked by it all.
Because they had finally realized that everything wasn't as simple as they had initially thought.
If we could have things called Traits and Levels...
Then what about the things coming out of those portals?
If a regular beast was already two to five times stronger and faster than a normal human, what about those monsters?
What made us think we could fight them?
Then another terrifying thought entered their minds.
In all those manga, novels, and stories, weren't there creatures from scenarios like this that could survive guns, bombs, and even nuclear weapons?
What would happen if we were unlucky enough for one of those things to stroll out of one of those portals?
What would we do if a Level 10 or Level 20 monster appeared?
Or worse...
Something above that?
We didn't even know how strong those goblins were.
We didn't know why they weren't moving away from the portal region yet.
As the thought sank in, the full gravity of everything fell upon them.
First, their phone signals were gone.
The only reason the speaker still worked was because it used a cable.
And the reason the monsters hadn't invaded the building yet was probably because when the students council president used the speaker, he spoke in an extremely low voice, almost like an echo, probably to avoid attracting the monsters to our location.
There was also the fact that the monsters didn't seem interested in leaving the premises around the portals yet.
But how long would that last?
And finally, there was the most worrying and dreadful thing they had been ignoring.
Maybe they had ignored it because it was so common in games and novels.
But did those green goblins have short daggers with them?
Every single one of them?
While we had nothing.
Not a gun.
Not a sword.
Not even a metal pipe.
If they entered the building, how would we protect ourselves?
It began with mere murmurs.
Then trembling.
Then crying.
Some people even wanted to scream, but they didn't.
Perhaps because they didn't want to die any quicker.
I watched all of this silently.
I didn't want to cause chaos or panic.
But I thought they should know.
And besides, the teacher had asked.
True, I could have lied.
I could have avoided telling them the whole truth.
But I simply didn't feel like hiding it.
In fact, even I had similar thoughts to them.
But those thoughts had mostly disappeared after I summoned the Gray Wolf.
Because it was strong.
Terrifyingly strong.
If I had to face something like it in my current state, with my current stats, I would probably die.
And that was despite the fact that it was only Level 1.
The same level as me.
Then again, it was just a Rare-rank...
How strong were Unique, Epic, or even higher-ranked creatures?
And what would happen if I met one as an enemy?
Or if something at a much higher level suddenly appeared?
Sigh.
Now I finally understood why novels always said humanity almost lost the fight against monsters, if not for the main character.
Blessed with plot armor, humanity somehow survived.
But what would happen if we didn't have such a protagonist?
What if we were nothing more than side characters who had no relevance to the story?
Or worse...
What if we were simply characters who were meant to die?
Then our lives would become a living hell.
No matter how smart we were, the writers of those stories always considered the situation from the perspective of ordinary people.
They tried to make everything as realistic as possible.
And even when they manipulated the story as much as they wanted, they still determined that Earth would go through hell in almost every scenario.
Now that I thought about it, those writers were truly good at what they did.
Because with nothing but imagination and educated guesses, they could determine that humanity would struggle—or at least be pushed to the brink of extinction—if a fantasy, rift, apocalypse-type scenario were introduced into the modern world.
Sigh...
Sigh.
"Truly troublesome."
Well...
Let's take it slow for now.
It's not like I think of myself as the main character.
I'm sure there are people like me all around the world.
But I truly hope we can survive.
I stayed quiet.
Faces of the people important to me flashed through my mind.
Mom.
Dad.
Big bro.
Little sisters.
I hope you are alright.